DaysFanatic777

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

Couldn't they just do away with the show and announce all the winners on Twitter and Instagram instead?

That would be merciful. 

I'm feeling second hand embarrassment watching this shite. Swear to GAWD!  

I'm very liberal, so if a dying family member wanted out of their misery, I'd try to fulfill their wishes.  

This awards show needed to be put out of it's misery a decade back, and every single year that become more apparent.  

1 minute ago, Soapsuds said:

They look like they're drunk already...LOL

No Ron, I'm drunk already.  That last musical number forced me to pour the vodka and fire off a joint.

I wish I were lying...I'm not. 

6 hours ago, KMan101 said:

 

His dialogue was AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. Characters come off SO dumb. Just really stupid. How actors got through that with a straight face ... lol.

 

I do agree on your take on him and you're right, I can also find something good, usually, in any writer. For example I adored Mal dumping Kevin and Chelsea from Y&R yet I think he's trash ... lol. I find it kind of fun to dissect, I guess :/

 

1994 was a good year. He had it in him to plot well ... and yep he knew the value of having A/B/C/D stories. There was *always* something going on or happening, even if you hated it you were probably entertained on some level. 

 

John and Austin were dumb as stumps during his run. Dim bulb model Austin was nothing like crying, sensitive boxer Austin. John, a smart man, was sooooooooooo dumb. And I hated how Reilly did Victor, "Tony" and Jack dirty in the writing (Jack's initial return under Valley wasn't too bad but it didn't last long ...). 

 

But I do agree he was ultimately damaging to the genre and we never recovered from it.

 

I usually agree with you so no surprise I agree with you here again, lol. I was a kid too at the time of Reilly and I was pretty pulled in. Re-watching as an adult I see the awful dialogue, etc. lol. The day to day stuff was often tedious but I'll be damned if he didn't compell me to watch. But as a whole I can see why he's seen as so damaging to the genre. But it's sad because he kind of had it in him (he also benefited I believe from working with well known and better scribes who also knew how to plot a story and how to structure a soap opera). 

 

Again, all well said. Looking back at the posession, a lot of it was dark, gothic and sort of enthralling. I can get how audiences were pulled in (and also turned off) but then you have the demon mask thing and morphing into a panther .... lol

 

I think it would generate a lot of buzz. I have no doubts Ron has thought of it. He loves referring to the possession. Other writers never acknowledged it (and I can understand why). I kinda like how DAYS is able to poke fun at itself a bit when referring to their history. 

Kman, I want to invite you over to my place for a beer, dude.  We'd have a blast. 

5 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

I can't say it any better than you just did.

Amy, I have admired your posts for a decade, so that compliment is truly an honor.  

11 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was riveted to DAYS as a kid in the early-mid '90s - Bo and Billie, Gina/Hope, Marlena possessed, all that. The style and atmosphere was thick and brilliant. But the dialogue was so silly. To me it was always a bit of a goof. When I wanted a smart show I watched OLTL, GH and AMC. But in its 90s resurgence DAYS was undoubtedly bigger than life.

The reason Reilly casts such a massive shadow over DAYS is because he was able to make it such an event. He had certain skills and scope that are undeniable. But I found his day to day writing unwatchable later on, as I grew, and especially when he came back. I think he did at least as much damage to the genre as the ways he bolstered it. And I think his deeply bizarre views on sex, sexuality and men and women were antiquated, disturbed and repugnant.

 

That said, if it was me today? Yeah, I'd have someone get possessed again. Albeit I'd do it differently.

I think my issues with him stem from my dedication to Days and my love for what the show represented before he arrived.  He was entertaining, and I felt his first couple of years are an example in rich and decadent soap opera.  

I loved the Procter and Gamble soaps.  I was glued to ATWT and GL growing up.  Of course, I had periods of time I'd get into GH, OLTL, and Loving.  I don't know why, but AMC never caught my eye.  That said, Days was always my main squeeze.  

Would I do the possession again now.....I actually think the show needs to go there before it's cancelled.  Don't get me wrong, i blame that story for more than I can or will elaborate.  The show could have easily been the heartfelt drama it once was, but the second Marlena morphed into a panther there was no going back.  The show i knew and loved died in that moment, and it became something very different.  That said, bringing back the devil at this point could only help this show.  I am certain Ron has thought about it, and it's entirely possible he may do it if he has time.  I cannot imagine how terrible it's going to look on this budget, but this show could use the buzz it would generate.  Like it or not, it's kind of what Days is known for.  

1 minute ago, KMan101 said:

I think what's sad with Reilly is, like Ron Carlivati, I thought Reilly could craft a soap story with beginnings, middles and ends, but then somewhere it all went to hell and I don't quite get what happened. I'm not saying it was perfect but his 1999-2002 Passions is very different (even with Hell in a Closet!) than what followed. DAYS from 1993-1995 was very different than 1996/1997+ and especially his disastrous backpeddling 2003-2006 stint (where Lucas and Sami regressed into splitting up Carrie and Austin again, Billie's swamp baby was suddenly alive, half the town is murdered yet not really, but they drag it out for a year with Melaswen, a castle, etc. Lawd .... not to mention Sami as a man (sort of clever I suppose), Iraq ... lawd again).

 

I feel more disappointed than angry, honestly. But there's no question he was ... damaging  lol 

I can find good things to say about any writer.  I stand by how I feel about him, but I agree with you completely.  He also had a knack for developing new characters, weaving various characters in different orbits into various stories, and the man understood there had to be an A, B, C, and D story on the canvas at all times.  When the payoff arrived, and the A  story ended, he always had the B story ramping up.  O yeah, and his payoffs were magnificent.  Sure, it take 3-5 years to get a payoff, but somehow he always made even more fun than we imagined. 

At the same time, his dialogue was like something a crackhead would write on a used paper bag.  His stunts always delivered ratings, so rival soaps started copying him and it brought the whole genre down to his level.  He made the leading male heroes on his shows so f#cking stupid you'd swear they must have suffered some sort of head trauma, we just didn't see it.  

I remember during the big payoff with the secret room debacle, they had Stefano wondering around the mansion in plain sight wearing a mustache, and no one recognized him.  I mean, he literally only had on a mustache and a butler's outfit, but none of those fools was the wiser.  Idiotic things like that soon started spilling into other soaps all over daytime, and now here we are.  Soaps were never respected, but by the time he finished working his magic non watchers were rolling their eyes and making fun of us. 

Yes, he had good qualities.  I thought Days was absolutely brilliant in 1994.  He made that year one of my favorites in the show's very long history.  It's always complicated when you start dissecting various head writers, cause like Vee said earlier, you are going to find good and bad. 

However, out of all the hacks the genre has been cursed with since "Guiding Light" was sent over radio waves in 1937, I stand by my belief that he's is the Ultimate king over all the hacks. 

Just now, KMan101 said:

 

Yeah, those were the two I was referring to but I've never seen them for myself, personally. I think those were the only two, the rest all feel like shock value.

 

Days seemed to love raping their leading ladies and it was really all about plot and not at all how it affected said character. I mean, I know Maggie was raped by Ian the hospital rapist, and she had a gun for a while but it all just seemed like a plot device to keep her and Mickey apart a little longer. 

 

I also thought it was damaging when you had Don forcing himself on Marlena and then not too long after, Kellam was raping her. 

If I were to make a list entitled "Soaps The Abused Rape And Treated Like A Trope", Days would be second from the top.  I thought the show probably crafted the best fallout when Jennifer was raped by Lawrence Alamain.  They were able to tie in Jack's past assault on Kayla, and deal with some unresolved issues.  That didn't make it any less of a plot device.  The show needed another year of the buzz Jack and Jennifer were delivering, so marrying them and sending to the back burner wasn't going to happen at that point.  So, they once again returned a an all too familiar subject and used the rape card.  I am shaking my head as a type this.  It's all too much.

So what would be number one?  Passions of course!  IF you can call that bullshit a soap opera.  James E Reilly really lost his damn mind when he was "writing" for that show.  When I think about the amount of sexual victimization he penned, it sends waves of nausea pulsating through my body.  

I'll tell you plainly, I despise what that man did to daytime, god rest his soul.  He didn't just put the final nail in the coffin for soaps....

No, Reilly built the damn coffin, threw the genre inside, nailed the f#cking thing shut, and shoveled dirt on it was it sunk into the ground.  He is the worst thing to ever happen to daytime television.  

Sorry Toups. 

4 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Is anyone surprised by this?  Or the lack of backlash?  Trump basically commits acts with impunity the way most people breathe. And the lying and rapaciousness that goes on in his cabinet and inner circle is breathtaking.

 

Can there be just one day when we don't find out something disgusting or appalling occurred thanks to the hysterics of that fool in the White House?  It's head spinning when you look at the rate that frightening bombshells drop when it comes to this administration.  

I am the father three little girls, and my entire world revolves around them.  When I think about the repugnant mess we are in politically in this nation, and think about the future I want for them, my heart literally starts to race.  The horrific damage this malignant a##hole and his deranged followers have inflicted will not be neatly fixed when we get a real President in office.  It is going to take decades to repair the mess, and my children will be dealing with the fallout when they reach adulthood, I'm afraid.  It's not fair to them, but it seems unavoidable. 

9 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was one of Ron's very first boosters at OLTL. He took over the show and made it the best it had been in over a decade. Back in his first year or two I would tell anyone who would listen. He did great work there (and even some at GH, where he and Frank saved the show in 2012 IMO, and it was far from perfect even then). He also did terrible work, and I allegedly got on his shít list for being very vocal elsewhere re: the Todd/Marty rapemance, though we have never interacted personally to my knowledge.

 

Most people working in this genre - or anywhere in the world, in life - are more than one extreme, they're a lot of things, especially when ground down by time or budget or constraints. They're human beings and nuanced, not monsters. It is a thankless job. I try to factor all that in. And I know Ron didn't get to do everything he wanted at OLTL or GH or even DAYS. But I also know a lot of his biggest mistakes are all him, and I think he got very arrogant and lazy some years ago.

You've got to give the devil his due.  Ron did in fact save GH, and he has found a way to give Days four extra years (I'm telling you, it will be gone more than likely after this next chance for renewal).  That means two daytime dramas are still airing because Ron Carlivati found a way to reinvigorate the shows.  That's no small feat in 2019. 

Save the rapemance, I thought his first year to year and a half at Days was enjoyable.  Has it been plagues by tropes, ridiculous camp, enormous plot holes, and poorly developed characters?  Of course, but it is "Days of Our Lives" and no one expects this show to be an in depth character study.  There was a time when it was a sophisticated drama that was driven by interwoven relationships and social issues.  Sadly that show died with disco, and this is what we are left with.  I think Ron is a decent choice for the show at this point.

I'm just seriously dreading where we are headed from here.  Once he reaches this point in his tenure on any given show, things really go to hell in a hand basket.  Since the new year arrived, this show has fallen apart faster than a gazelle popping Adderall, and it's going to continue to spiral.

I had always hoped Sheri Anderson would be brought back to see this show off the air, but now that's highly unlikely.  Ron will be there when this show makes it's final bow, and I'd bet my entire savings account that it will be a f#cking dumpster fire of enormous proportions when the sand finally runs out of the hourglass. 

1 minute ago, Faulkner said:

Plus, working in a genre that has zero respect and didn’t even really have it when it was at its creative peak. You do really have to love it, it seems. Just a thankless job really, even when it was more lucrative, and burnout can happen so fast. Really makes you appreciate the dedication and seemingly endless creativity of the greats, who still had their share of rough patches and blunders.

You know, I personally idolize Douglas Marland and William Bell.  Harding Lemay is why up there on my list as well, as is Agnes Nixon.  Then you have the incredible Pat Falken-Smith, the one writer I felt could and would do a outstanding job on any soap opera.  She could work the canvas like an artist whether she was making Port Charles sizzle, or turning up the drama in Salem.  That's a rarity.

However, every single one of those greats also gave us some WTF moments.  No one can be perfect turning out scripts for 260 episodes of television per year.  That is an unbelievable challenge.  

I think Daytime Dramas have died a slow death because the writers we have had available this millennium didn't grasp what the greats had in common;  they adapted flawlessly to the changing times.  They weren't afraid to transform a drama as cultural norms and trends shifted.  The stories currently being told on the remaining four could easily be told in 1992, and that is a massive issue that sadly is past the point of addressing.  

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

Ron really loves the genre, and sometimes his skills for structuring a plot or laying it out across a canvas or timing a big reveal can still be seen in the bones of something. But he seems to have internalized the way he and Frank Valentini did things over at OLTL and GH to cut costs, where they would island characters and rotate them way too mechanically. There's a healthy amount of rotating storylines and then there's not seeing a key plotline for 1-3 weeks, while a ton of stuff happens offscreen. The latter is his habit in recent years. That's not even getting into how bad his OTT excesses have gotten, and his shrugging off murder, rape, etc. He has talent, but it's so buried for me these days beneath the camp, the cutting corners and the casual disregard for stuff that can really assassinate characters. You can always tell when the bus is coming for someone with him, or when he thinks the comedy or shock value of something will be worth the cost to a character he thinks can 'handle it'. I just don't trust him anymore and I haven't for years.

+1.  This should be framed. 

I remember when he took over at OLTL, and the fact is he did turn that show around.  For a while, it was the most entertaining drama in daytime, and I remember praising him  to the high heavens.  In fact, a lot of posters on here did that as well. I did lurk a lot here back in the day.

He has bad habits and he's unoriginal. When he first takes the helm at a show, he does pull from history and starts strong right out of gate.  Then he loses his edge, and the show will become a boring mess until her thinks of some over the top stunt to pull it back out again.  That cycle seems to continue until he is fired.  

I wouldn't want to be a soap writer because fans are so passionate and insane.  You couple that with the work load and network higher ups, and you have the worst writing gig in the entertainment industry.  I try to keep that in mind before I criticize a head writer too much, but lately Days has become so incredibly terrible that it's impossible to stop myself.  

3 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

I agree. 

 

I mean, Hogan Sheffer also played male rape for laughs on ATWT.

 

It's repulsive and offensive. It's not kinky or hot or sexy. I wonder what place Ron gets in where he thinks a rapemance is sexy. Is that his fantasy? I mean ... I don't get it.

 

I've never really liked soaps using rape, because it was often never about the actual victim and what they go through, it was always just a plot device for shock value, or punishing a character. It's often always rubbed me the wrong way. I think probably only one or two soaps really played it the way they should have.

I thought ATWT did a fantastic job with Margo's rape back in the day, and Santa Barbara did a wonderful job with Eden's attack.  Past that I have no other examples in mind to pull from.  

I have never liked how Days would use rape to create angst for their super couples.  They turned a horrific crime committed against a human being into a plot device.  It wasn't riveting...it was sadistic.  

2 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

 

PREACH!

 

You are not wrong at all. Nothing to add (yet; I'm still working on my coffee ), your post perfectly summarizes him for me. 

Drink a cup for me.  Coffee is one of may favorite beverages (I think it's quite obvious what my number one choice would be )

Thank you so much for saying that, and you know great minds think alike.  

I have my own survivor's story, so when I see sexual assault being constantly presented as some cute and kinky plot device, it makes me both sick and furious.  He's done it with every single show he's written, which actually makes me question his mental state.  I don't think it gets more offensive than that shitty and repulsive story he did on OLTL.  

9 hours ago, KMan101 said:

 

She's been off on-screen for a while, I see it too. She's very much checked out. I often feel like she plays Hope "lost" (since losing Bo) but of course it doesn't get written that way but that's how I'm choosing to look at it, lol. I think she probably enjoys working with Galen but she HAS to know this pairing has really sunk her and Hope is such a shell of who she used to be. But I guess loss can do that, except they don't play it out on-screen so either Kristian is making a choice or she's just truly checked out. She's so full of life off-screen ... 

 

LOL that dog wedding! Calliope and Eugene were SO bizarre. I like them at times but then I cringe all at the same time. Lawd. And absolutely it started going downhill before he arrived.

 

And LOL at the list of Ron's tropes and it's order. But it's 100% accurate now that you listed it out. Sooooo true. I always thought he could fit DAYS and when he honors history in a good way, it works. He has it in him somewhere (I think a stronger co-hw would go a looong way) but he resorts to tropes or he starts writing petty garbage because he's checked out. I often wonder if writers pitch better stuff but then resort to more outlandish [!@#$%^&*] in order to get it approved ...

 

And yep, we're at the mask phase  Just wait folks ... Oddly though it works better on DAYS than on GH ... LOL, but it's still so ridiculous. But JER would be proud. (And I'm willing to buy it in this case, oddly enough ...)

 

He tried the rapemance with "Gabby" and Stefan and it fell entirely flat so he lost interest and next thing you know Mansi is back to wrap it up (I wasn't her biggest fan but a part of me thinks, and it's just an assumption, that Miller bolted because she saw the writing on the wall with the rapemance with Stefan, but I'm probably wrong, LOL) and Chabby are shipped off (their exit was nice though ... I do think Ron has it in him ... but man he's beyond frustrating ... I'm not saying he's great but I've always thought he had it in him somewhere ... I know ... wishful thinking ... his runs on OLTL and GH all sort of repeated stuff ... and he loves his villain of the month ...)

I think Kristian actually enjoyed Cosgrove the most out of all her onscreen partners.  I've heard that through a fairly reliable source.  I think Haiden could have worked, but once they slept together they lost steam. 

Yeah, I do see some redeemable qualities in Ron. I like how he rotates the cast and brings back fan favorites.  I enjoy his obsession with history when he channels it the right way.  At Days, his brand of camp has moments when it resonates with the show.  So before I go any further, I want to simply state that I don't see him as a total failure.

But the man is destructive and he gets extremely lazy with a quickness.  One example to me is how he wrote Leo.  He relied on every horrible stereotype imaginable and it was past the point of simply being offensive.  I can't believe he had him stripping down in front of men, while proceeding to sexually assault half the male cast.  It was an embarrassment to even sit through an episode.  The man also seems to love plot driven stories seemingly tailored to decimate vital characters, rendering them unlikable.  The way he trolls people on Twitter is appalling, and once he stops giving a damn he targets fan bases with his writing.  It's a shitshow. 

You can always tell when the man runs out of steam and checks out.  The second he brought back Diana Collville (One of my fave heroines back in the day) and turned her into Cruella DeVille, I knew the man was asleep at the wheel.

He needs to turn off his "Knots Landing" reruns, and start attempting to put some sort of coherent thoughts into his stories before this dumpster fire gets out of control.  Where we are headed if this continues may make Dena Higley look like Jane Austen.  I kid you not.  I am afraid of how low it sinks from here.

6 hours ago, Dr Neil Curtis said:

Maggie should have went back to the bottle back when Mickey died, not rushed into a Victor love story or given a son and an annoying granddaughter!

I agree with this completely.  

I actually liked Maggie and Victor at one point, but the coupling ended up doing damage to Maggie.  I need Maggie Horton back, and Maggie Kiriakis needs to disappear. 

5 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

 

 

I have waited too long for this.  Yes, Maggie has been annoying since Mickey died, but Suzanne Rogers is still a powerhouse!!!

Maggie my dear, do just like I have done since 4 PM (CST), and drink your f#cking heart out!  There is nothing meaningful happening on this show anymore, so I need YOU to deliver.  

Bottoms Up!!

16 minutes ago, j swift said:

Carrie-Anne Inaba, Marie Osmond, and Sheryl Underwood discussing popular culture sounds like the blind leading the blind.  How would Marie even know who Eve was if she wasn't on the panel?  There are intriguing parts about Marie including her dead gay son, her divorce and its impact on her faith, and how aging effects women in Hollywood.  However, Marie seems reticent to discuss these issues in interviews, so I doubt that they will be fodder for the group.  

 

None of them are attuned to modern trends, and it seems like it is going to be 200 days of the ladies referencing the only parts of popular culture that have reached mass media; like twerking and selfies.  I'm placing my bet right now that we hear "back in my day" at least three times a week.

J swift, if I had tried to say it better, I could not have done it.  

Listen, I don't hate Marie.  I actually secretly like her, in spite of her stringent flaws.  She has been through so much, and I can't help but root for her since she has overcome so much adversity. 

However, Gilbert was my champion that kept "The Talk" more left leaning.  We all know Osmond will not fill those shoes.  Usually, I am at work, so it won't bother me too terribly much.  However, on the rare instances I am off and able to watch, Sara's absence and Marie's presence will likely make this bleeding heart liberal turn the f#cking channel. 

Remember with the next one, I am from the south.  In addition, it's Bradley Cooper for Christ's sake.

And finally....My father was a full time minister.  This really is my theme song....

Christ on a cracker......where do I start.

I Know.....Chris Goutman.  That's where I start.  He was a malignant tumor that finished off one of the best and most intricate dramas to ever grace the television screen.  If he had simply been worthless, it wouldn't have been so horrid to endure.  The man proudly decimated daytime's crown jewel. 

Then you have Frank Valentini, a man so shockingly clueless his theme song should be "If I Only Had A Brain."  I wish I could have been the least bit shocked when he had Colonel Sanders arrive in Port Charles with his secret recipe.  Sadly, it was just another day in his toxic tenure.  That man should have been fired when they mercifully let go of Carlivati.  

Finally, you have Gary Tomlin.  He's had some success, and all of it by accident.  Days was hardly sleek when he took the helm, but it didn't look like high school play thrown together by some village idiot.  The way production values fell apart was staggering to behold, and it never recovered at all.  Say it was the budget cut....but no matter the budget the lighting didn't have to make the show look vagina pink. 

14 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Hahaha....glad to have you back. I thought aliens had taken you away....LOL

That would be an option if Ron Carlivati was god.

No, my father in law died so I unplugged from social media.  My family needed me.  

Then, I go on Twitter after months away, and get a seven day ban because I said I wanted Eve Donovan to die.  I suspect a Stayla fan was behind it. Well, November is coming and payback is a b#tch!  

3 minutes ago, Khan said:

 

When *I* think of the '80's, I think of those prisms that Stefano needed to heal his brain tumor, lol.

 

Again, though, I ate up that [!@#$%^&*], because (thanks largely to EP Al Rabin) DAYS remained a thrilling, romantic show.  It certainly had more passion than GH, which seemed to be all about the action-adventure stuff, but not much heart.

Gawd I loved the Prisms.  I'll gladly admit it.  I have no shame. 

I'm not trying to say Days was bad in the 80's.  It wasn't.  It had some moments when it was flat insulting to one's intelligence, but it was still a compelling and multifaceted drama.  Yes you had the action and adventure stuff,  but they also still managed to tell stories revolving around contemporary social issues in a thought provoking yet respectful way.  

Everything that came after this era truly was a joke.  It wan't a few moments of ridiculous plot points; it was just an endless stream of idiocy. ;

Just look at Nicole's (or Kristen's) face.  

It's the stuff nightmares are made of. 

When she cries, somewhere, a dove falls out of the sky. 

1 minute ago, jam6242 said:

Yeah, that was awful.  Poor Robert Clary had to sing for them!  I wonder what he thought about that?  I was more interested in the CBS soaps in the 80s and 90s, but that gradually waned too.  The soaps started copying each other too much, and not in a good way (e.g., Reva being cloned on GL; I'm surprised that JER didn't come up with that one first).  I mostly stopped watching soaps all together in the late 90s, then a co-worker got me into watching Days again, around 2006.  I've stuck around out of habit since then, but they've almost lost me.  I'm barely watching now.  I was not familiar with Ron's prior work, so I tried to give him a chance, but I finally had to admit that he's terrible.  I'm afraid we're stuck with him until the end though.  I don't know how soaps will ever again attract the new audience they need to survive (and they've alienated many of the old audience).  There are just way too many other quality options now.

Daytime Soaps refused to evolve.  It's that simple, really.  After Reilly pulled his supernatural BS in the 90's, soaps just went back to trope after trope.  

Ron is so weird.  He loves history, so he'll do fitting tributes like the one for Susan Hayes back in December.  I can really get behind that.  He has certain characters he just "gets" (Sami, Marlena, John, etc..).  However, when he misses the mark, it's nothing short of atrocious.  Just take a quick look at Hope Williams Welch Brady Jennings Hernandez.  Like I've said, he didn't start said character's demise, but he gave her a massive push over the cliff.  I can't think of a way to repair her at this point.  Even Bo riding in on his motorcycle couldn't make her tolerable.  Watching her is like getting a colonoscopy with no anesthesia.  

4 minutes ago, Khan said:

 

Same.  You never want to see another soap get the axe, but between the abysmal budget and even worse writing, cancelling DAYS, like cancelling GL, would be a mercy killing at this point.

Yeah...It's sad when you've watched a show for nearly 40 years and you start praying something will kill it.  

Now we will have to endure Ron "crafting" this show's final story lines.  I'm going to need a prescription of Xanax, a gallon bag full of weed, and a closet full of vodka to endure it. 

Well, that's all on hand anyway.  I must have those things to endure the Trump Administration.  One must cope somehow. 

3 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

Before I delve into my reply, I want to say  thank you for the compliment!! I never know how I come across sometimes, LOL, so it's nice to hear. I have such a passion for daytime drama and it's stunning how wrong they get it so often. And I enjoy your posts as well. I love posting here because we're all so passionate. Even when some of us disagree we always end up finding common ground, LOL. I love our little community here  

 

Agreed so much on "daytime dramas are indeed dying from self inflicted wounds" SO SO SO SO TRUE. They only have themselves to blame, really. They spend a lot of time being annoyed by us who demand better instead of actually giving us better ...

 

Thanks for your mom's reaction to the Brady invasion. It seems no one ever wants to be critical of that era but soaps have been suffering the same problems for a very very very long time ... I think it was just a different time so more fans just accepted it and enjoyed it (it irks me to see the death of Don and Marlena as a couple, but I always felt Don was too controlling, personally; and couples during the 80s eras were kept apart by really really really stupid things and misunderstandings, things Reilly just only doubled down on in the early 90s ...)

Passion is one of the many reasons I started posting here more.  Plus, I enjoy intelligent dialogue that goes deeper than I hate this said character or whatever scene.  I want to engage in thought provoking discussion, and this is the place to do it!

Tropes helped kill soaps as well.  This little genre couldn't move past certain tropes and stereotypes.  Ron Carlivati is the absolute worst when it comes to this, and any show he helms will suffer under his pen, eventually. 

It seems every show he writes for goes in this order:

Doppelganger

Back From The Dead

D.I.D.

Cartoon Villain Crashes Wedding

Back From The Dead Again

Then We Arrive at MASKS......That's where we are now in his little timeline.  

OH....and don't forget rapemance.  Ron just has to do a rapemance.

It really gets tiresome. 

6 minutes ago, jam6242 said:

Some of the 80s stories (and performances) do seem cringe-worthy now, but I continued to watch, even after my favorites left.  I do think Sheri could still mine warm moments from the OTT stuff.   I thought the scripts she wrote in her latest stint with Days were good but those were too few.  I suppose she didn't want to remain at that capacity.  She seemed to have little, or no, influence on Ron, as far as her consulting position was concerned.

 

@DaysFanatic777I always enjoy your posts too, wherever I may find them. 

 

 

Thank you!

When I think of the 80's, I always remember the dog wedding Calliope put together.  That was HORRID!  I was just a kid, and it insulted my eight year old mind.  People lay all of the blame at Reilly's feet for Days turning into a shitshow.  While he made a massive contribution that cannot be denied, this show started going downhill long before he arrived. 

15 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

Yeah, I love Anderson but the show really veered off track as everyone got all hot and bothered by the super couples and adventures. Not saying the show wasn't good but it became a different show before Reilly did his own damage later on (to be fair, I see a lot of silly stupid stuff we'd all rip to shreds now, and the show still had some flaws I see still today ...) But back then, there was a budget, and folks seemed to genuinely care more about putting out good quality stuff, even when it was a bit cringey and dumb. Personally I found Calliope and Eugene to be absolutely exhausting and tiresome characters most of the time. I wonder how fans really felt as all these new people just randomly started showing up and dominating airtime. I know it was a different time, writers developed characters better, the show just looked better, actors were invested, etc. but a lot of the same complaints we often have today I could see folks having then ... but it seems folks want to look at things through nostalgia and rose colored glasses. But I'd take any of it over today's crap.

 

And to be fair, it still had heart, a sense of community, stories while dumb still had beginnings, middles and ends and lead into other stories, they still tried to bring back certain characters other regimes have long given up on. I can see why fans ate it up, but again, I see a lot of flaws ... lol

 

They had the best opportunity in 2010 to resurrect the Hortons as a true core family and they failed. They trotted them out for Alice and promptly forgot about all of them.

 

It's weird how Ron seemed to want to write for Lucas and Bryan Dattilo initially but then it suddenly stopped, Lucas was MIA for a lot of Will's return and then randomly paired back with Chloe before being written out. So strange. Another Horton was out the door ...

 

It's also so sad that vital characters like Carrie, Philip, Shawn and Belle are all off canvas, to name just a few.

 

They do give Sarah, IMO, plenty of time with Maggie (but it felt bizarre to see her just sitting there grimacing as Victor was rude as hell to Sarah for no reason but because he's a grumpy ass old man, you'd never know they were mother and daughter half the time ... and Sarah's Will's family too but you'd never know it when they're interacting during Will's 6 episode brain tumor story), but really with no one else. The lack of episode guarantees probably plays into this. You can't have Sarah and Jen or Sarah and Hope interacting because you need to use Kristian's appearances for her own story and in Ciara's story ... so other things lack. People don't seem to agree when I say it but Episode Guarantees are really hurting this show.

 

This may sound simplistic but I'm just no longer drawn into soaps like I am when I watch anything from the past. There's very little depth anymore. Not that soaps weren't always a bit hollow at times, but I really feel they're so hollow now. I watch out of loyalty. Nothing I see really ever truly drags me in anymore. It's really sad. I can pick just about any episode, even a bad one, from the past and be instantly drawn in and interested.

I have read your posts for years on this board, and another message board I post on.  You never disappoint. I agree with all of this.  

I remember my mother's reaction to the Brady invasion.  She HATED it.  She loathed watching them hijack the show. She kept on watching, but she was never satisfied with Days again when the show shifted gears.  

I see it this way...soaps evolved and moved to prime time.  I ADORE "Game Of Thrones", and yes it is a soap opera.  Soaps have not bit the bullet, but daytime dramas are indeed dying from self inflicted wounds.